IT Employment Decline Moderates in February;
Outperforms General Employment Market

Alexandria, VA, March 11, 2009 – After dropping markedly in December (56,000 jobs or 1.4%) and January (46,000 jobs or 1.15%), the decline in IT employment moderated in February dropping by (17,000 jobs or .43%), according to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), which tracks monthly IT employment.

After peaking in November with over 4 million jobs and dropping the subsequent three months, IT employment stands at 3,938,800.  Despite the drop over the last three months, IT employment was effectively flat (-.23%) year-over-year, outperforming the general employment marketplace, which shed more than 4 million jobs (-3.02%) over the same time period. 

"Given the horrific conditions in the broader economy, the decline in national IT employment is not surprising," commented Mark Roberts, CEO of NACCB. "However, when you dig beneath the national numbers, the landscape is far more complex.  There are still pockets of relative strength in IT employment in certain geographic regions, industries, and skill sets.  For example, while the national unemployment rate surged to 8.1%, the Q4 2008 unemployment rate for Computer Hardware Engineers (1.4%) and Computer Software Engineers (1.9%) remained low. Despite outperforming the general employment market, going forward, IT employment remains susceptible to a deteriorating macroeconomic environment," observed Roberts.  

The IT employment index is published by the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), the national trade association representing IT staffing and solutions firms. For complete index please visit:

http://www.magnetmail1.net/ls.cfm?r=6486710&sid=6081954&m=683066&u=naccb&s=http://www.naccb.org/employment-index/index.cfm

Technical note: NACCB's IT Employment Index is the first specific measurement of IT employment.  This unique measurement of total IT employment is created monthly by studying the ongoing staffing patterns of a dozen IT and computer related occupations in 16 industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of IT workers including the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, financial, information services, business and professional services, and education and health industries. The monthly IT Employment Index is based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, which is subject to monthly revisions, with concomitant revisions to the Index.  The IT Employment Index is also subject to annual revisions of BLS data. The IT Index was rebenchmarked in February 2008 with the publication of the BLS January 2008 employment report, reflecting significant revisions of employment data from the past several years.

Tis the season for lots of client meetings. This is the perfect opportunity with the economy slow, for one of my favorite things.. eating!! And I hate to eat alone so it's been raining client lunches! I usually keep them social and keep business talk to a minimum. However, since this has come up more than once now, I thought I'd just talk about it here.

The number one question on everyone's lips to us in the staffing world seems to be, "What are you seeing out there?"

I won't lie.

It's tough.
It's ugly.
It's slow.

But what it isn't, is dead. There's still some life in our ol' economy just yet.. although the pulse is faint, it's still breathing! I can say this with certainty because I received my 401K statement yesterday and believe it... it made money! (it was only about $23 but still.. I was so shocked, I had to sit down!) It's just one of the little triggers I'm seeing that the ignition in economy engine is turning over. In the staffing world, we are busy with contract work. As I've mentioned in the past, there's still work to be done and you need hands and brains (hopefully) to do it. It seems, as the fear is finally lifting, so are budget restrictions on projects that have been sitting idle since last year. We have calls starting to trickle in with project needs, which is a VERY promising sign!

Unemployment is always the last to recover in a recession and with it, staffing. You'll continue to see the unemployment rate rise and hear of more layoffs. Companies will hold off on hiring until they feel confident that the economy is more stabilized. But fear not, the layoffs are indeed slowing down and unemployment rate, although rising, is not going up as fast as was originally indicated. It can't rain all of the time!

So even though I've answered the #1 question here, I'm still accepting lunch invitations. Next week is booked, but I have some availability the week after...

Have a great night!

Just in case you weren’t convinced that I read it all of the time, I’m referencing another article from Computerworld. In it, the writer discusses how President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus could create thousands of IT jobs. This is good news for you and great news for me!!  So watch the stimulus closely to see how you or your organization can utilize it.

 

Even without the stimulus, the article continues to say that the IT job outlook for 2009 is better than other industries. So keep on coding, troubleshooting and installing! It could actually be a great year!

 

 

Thibodeau, Patrick. " Stimulus could create thousands of IT jobs." Computerworld. 5 January 2009.  http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/272042/stimulus_could_create_thousands_it_jobs .

Hello everyone!

Although I'm not new to blogging, I am new to this site so I thought I'd take a minute and introduce myself.

Who am I?
I am not a developer or coder, although I have coded. I'm not a web guru, although I have built web sites. I'm not a network administrator, although I have been in the past. Who am I? A freakin' cool IT staffing professional. Now before you *roll eyes*, sigh and say, "oh great another head hunter".. please give me a minute to change the stigma that goes with my profession ...

My dad is a C++ application developer who still codes all day, every day. Although he had some challenges helping me with my VB homework in college (*appreciative nod*, thanks for tryin' Dad), he is extremely talented and thanks to his constant ramblings about all things high tech, he is who I have to thank for my passion in the industry (and science fiction) and addiction to all things nerdy. Although coding was fun, I fell into network administration by accident as I worked my way through college in small firms and I just worked my way up from there.

About three years ago, I walked into a large IT staffing firm looking for work. After about a month of constant phone calls trying to convince me, I accepted their offer to come and work for them. I figured why not? What did I have to lose? And at least I could give it a shot to see if I could. I never expected to love it. And I've been doing it ever since.

Now, why am I cool?
First, I have a background in IT.  I get it. I know what you do,  I appreciate what you do and I respect you for doing it. And I love it. 'nuff said.

Secondly.. circling back to the part where my dad got me involved in everything nerdy... well, he wasn't the only one. I have a very close personal friend to thank for my gaming addiction. In addition to Wii, I play a couple of different MMO’s at the moment; I've found that I can only financially support about 2 at a time.   I have my house wirelessly networked with my desktop, laptop, Tivo, Wii and plasma TV and I'm the only one living there! I even convinced my dad to let me log in on his home network so I can game while over there for dinner. Sad but true.

And lastly, I'm funny. Well, most of the time….

So, why am I here?
To meet new people!! My best clients and candidates are sometimes ones I met through a friend. In my current position, I'm client facing 100% of the time so generally, I'm looking to help any companies with staffing ranging from projects to full-time positions (in the Phoenix area). If you are looking for work, I can help you there too! My partners here are exceptional recruiters!

So please feel free to contact me anytime, for any reason. I don't mind questions! I'll occasionally post interesting articles about hiring trends, how to get more response for your resume and what's shakin’ in the economy.

I'm on Twitter (twinklebug13), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/765/a69), etc..  Seek and ye shall find.
That’s enough for now.
Peace out.